


Beginning

by For the Record (SakoAkarui)



Series: Animorphs - Tom AU [1]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 02:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2565248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakoAkarui/pseuds/For%20the%20Record
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Me and a bunch of idiot kids get in way over our heads.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> All true author commentary has been placed in the work "Notes on Tom AU". Comments which break the fourth wall will be moved to that work, including relevant replies.

My name is Tom. Yeah, I know. How average is that? You probably want a last name, to help keep me straight from all the other Tom’s you know. Well, that’s not going to happen. You might even think I picked Tom to be more anonymous. And maybe I did, you’ll never know. Regardless, it’s what you’re going to get, so you have to deal with it.

What you have to understand is the world is flooded with aliens. Not like that Star Trek crap, but a real invasion. They invade people’s heads, set up shop around a person’s brain - _literally_ \- and then they’re what we’re calling Controllers, so named because they control the host entirely. We like to keep the names simple here. Says Tom.

Now before you walk off and call me a whack job, I’ve gotta tell you something. I’m only taking the time to write this out so more people will know. Maybe if you had some clue, got a little suspicious, you wouldn’t walk yourself into a trap. I wouldn’t blame you. I nearly got my foot caught in a Yeerk trap, and its just luck that I’m not. But if humanity can survive a little longer then maybe the Andalites will get here in time to rescue us. So try to be a little more paranoid out there, and maybe we’ll make it. Maybe.

I won’t tell you where I live, but it doesn’t matter, because no matter what town you’re in, it’s all happening around you. I might even be in your town. Your own local Tom, as it were. Good ol’ Tom, who isn’t really that good at school, but has a sick three-point shot and occasionally has some good jokes. Okay, like three good jokes, but they’re pretty fantastic.

My life used to be really normal. True Tom normal. And I liked it normal. I’m not really that impressive of a person, and to be frank, I really don’t want to be. I mean, I’m great at basketball, might’ve even been good enough to get a scholarship. I could’ve put in more hours and really worked my lay-up. Mom had her reservations about how much time I devoted to ‘ball, like I could’ve done something better than basketball with my spare time. Well, maybe playing basketball was nice and normal. Maybe playing basketball is what we should all be allowed to do, while we wait until we have to grow up. Because when you _do_ have to grow up, it will probably slap you in the face and you just have to step up.

My plummet into adulthood came about on a Friday night. I was sitting in the food court at the mall, watching the girl working the counter at the McDonalds. I had been following stupidly after this other girl Jenn until I overheard her with her friend. Apparently I was “really stupid, but we need all sorts”. At the time I was just hurt and angry, and pretty bummed out. Now I just think I dodged a major bullet.

So I was there to watch this other girl, who’s name I didn’t know, but she was really bright and upbeat, which I thought was pretty incredible for someone who manned the McDonalds counter at the mall. I’d seen her earlier that week, after the fallout with Jenn, and I just kind of kept coming back, I guess. As it was Friday, I was staying even later than usual. I think the girl finally noticed me, which was pretty embarrassing. I had my notebook out, so I could have theoretically not been ogling her for an hour or so. And then there’s this hand smacking my shoulder and my kid brother’s best friend is pulling up a chair. He’s this short kid with dark, long hair. I wondered if it was a new trend. Some other kid sat down in the other chair. The kid had straggly blond hair. I was happy to see that if there was a long-hair trend, it was limited to Marco. I closed the notebook.

“Tom.”

“Midget number 2.” I glanced at Marco’s friend.

“Oh right, Tobias, Tom. Tom, Tobias. He’s new. And guess who he’s looking for? Surprisingly, the same person I am! So where’s Jake? I’ve been waiting in the comic book store all night. Used up all my quarters. I would’ve had no one to brag to if I hadn’t noticed Tobias just skulking there.” Marco jerked his finger in the boy’s direction. Marco was generally alright. Talked too much sometimes. Jake would come home and complain how Marco would beat him on some game. I’d joke that I needed someone to keep Jake in his place while I was away. Ugly faces may or may not have been exchanged. The usual sibling stuff. Jake was into all sorts of games, or at least had been until lately. I used to play with him, but he seemed to have lost all interest in it lately.

“I’m not his keeper. He’s probably at that Sharing thing again. I regret ever taking him there in the first place.” The Sharing was this organization. Like scouts but for both boys and girls, and even some parents or older people. They had cook outs and things. That’s where I’d been following Jenn, the girl who thought I was stupid. Jenn was the reason I hadn’t been there on that Friday, as well, crazily enough. I just couldn’t face her after hearing what she had said.

“Ugh, he _promised_ me he’d come and hang out. He’s been spacing out on everything. Maybe we should we stage a rescue. I can go in, make some noise, and you can carry him over your shoulder. Toby here can run defense.”

“Good plan. I like the part where I save him like a whiny little girl.”

“Speaking of girls,” Marco interrupted. “Hello lovelies. Here to meet someone dark and handsome.” Marco brushed his hair to the side in what he must have thought was entrancing. It wasn’t. But then again I was an idiot back in middle school myself.

I turned just in time to see that this was quickly going to become a bad situation. The girl Marco had set his eyes on was my cousin Rachel. And if there has ever been a girl that does not take well to a catcall, it was Rachel. She had all the markings of Miss Teen USA along with the battle cry of an Amazon warrior.

“Excuse me?”

“Ok, I don’t want this to get ugly -“ I said, trying to save the situation.

“Why are you hanging around an ape like Marco? He’s barely evolved enough of a brain to speak, and we’re the worse for it,” Rachel said.

“Your mouth says ape, but your eyes say Greek god.”

“I really need to get home,” Rachel’s friend said. She was a short African-American girl, and realized I kind of knew her too. But only because Jake had a crush on her. I’d caught him over his yearbook, reading her note out loud just past graduation the year before. It hadn’t taken long to connect that girl with Rachel’s friend, Cassie. To be frank, I’d been surprised when I saw her. She was really quiet, wore old jeans and plaid shirts. She seemed honestly nice. To be frank, I was kind of proud of Jake’s taste.

I still found every opportunity to tease him about it, naturally, although it had been a while at that point.

“You’re not going through that construction site, are you?”

“Oh, please. Don’t tell me you want to come and protect me,” Rachel said.

“I actually feel I should protect the ax-murderers,” I shot back. I’d had completely other concerns at the time. Word around the high school was some drug dealers had moved into the area. It was pretty deserted, but there were often people there at night - kids drinking, homeless people curled up wherever they can fit. I had no idea if the drug dealers were new or not. But everyone cut through the construction site; not going through the site took forever to get home. I would’ve told Rachel to go the long way around, but I knew she wouldn’t. And no cousin of mine would run into drugs on my watch, no matter how tough she thought she was. “Alright, come on, dweeb brigade. Let’s get you home to your parents.” I stood to leave with the girls, but was surprised to see Marco and the other Tobias kid following.

“I want to stop by your place, give Jake a piece of my mind,” Marco said. I shrugged. What did I care? I was too stupid for Jenn, too pathetic to talk to McDonalds checkout girl, and now I was leading the middle school train home like ducklings.

I find it really depressing that I really felt I’d hit rock bottom at that point. Turns out rock bottom is really a lot deeper than any of us thought.

So we crossed the road and headed into the construction site. It was a big area, with trees on both sides and a huge field separating the site from the houses. It was supposed to be this big shopping center, but that didn’t pan out. Now it was just all these half-finished buildings, huge piles of rusted steel beams, those huge concrete pipes, mountains of dirt and pits of muddy water. There was this big creaky crane, too.

It sounded deserted that night, to my relief. Even though they talked tough, I could tell the kids were a little on edge. ‘Good,’ I thought. ‘You shouldn’t go poking about here anyway.’

But then that Tobias kid just kind of stopped. He started pointing straight up. I wondered if they kid was all there - he had been spaced out all evening - but then I looked up.

I almost missed it at first, but then I couldn’t tear my eyes away. A brilliant, blue-white light scooted across the sky, going fast at first - too fast for an airplane - then slower.

“What is that?” Rachel asked. She sounded amazed.

“I don’t know,” Tobias said.

“It’s a flying saucer!” Cassie yelled out.

“A flying saucer?” Marco said. He laughed, and then he looked up and his voice trailed off.

“It’s coming this way,” Rachel said.

“Get out of the open,” I said.

“What?” Rachel was still looking up, so I took her by the arm. It was a testament to how bizarre the situation was that I didn’t lose that arm immediately.

“All of you, get over this way and out of the open.” I herded them as best I could towards one of the big piles of concrete pipes. I practically had to carry the dreaming boy. By the time I had him with the others the ‘saucer’ was close enough to see it wasn’t really a saucer at all.

The thing was only about as long as a school bus. The front looked kind of like a chrome egg. The back was a long narrow shaft with two crooked, stubby wings. The end of each wing had what looked like mini-jet engines, if jet engines glowed blue out the back. The back curled up over top again, like a scorpion’s tail.

“That tail thing looks dangerous,” Marco said. The ship kept getting closer, and I was out of ideas on what I could really do at this point. I still couldn’t really believe what I was seeing. I looked over the kids’ faces. Marco had his phone out.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked.

“This is going to make a great video,” he said. “Someone go out and call it down.”

“No one is going out there!” I hissed.

“Come on, Tom. _Do it for the Vine._ ”

“That meme has never been funny and is not appropriate now and you need to put that phone away!”

The ship, meanwhile, had come in really close. It was maybe a hundred feet in the air over the field we’d been standing in. I could feel my hair standing on end. Rachel’s long blond hair was sticking straight out in every direction. Only Cassie looked normal. The Tobias kid was grinning.

“I think it’s going to land,” he said. I decided then that the kid _wasn’t_ all there and I should probably see that Tobias didn’t get lost finding home again. But he was right. The ship kept coming in lower. I could see the sides in detail now; it had black burn marks along the top, and some of the skin of the pod had been melted. It touched ground and instantly the blue lights went off. Rachel’s hair fell back down onto her neck.

“It isn’t very big, is it?” Rachel whispered.

“Well, it’s bigger than any spaceship I’ve seen,” I muttered.

“We should tell someone,” Marco said. “I mean, this is kind of major, you know? Spaceships don’t just land in the construction site every day. We should call the cops or the army or the president or something. We’d be totally famous. Maybe we could get on Letterman. Or Colbert, I guess.”

“We should definitely call someone,” I agreed. The others were all behind me, and now that the ship had landed I felt less like it would shoot. But I also couldn’t really leave. I mean, there was a spaceship in front of me. A real spaceship! I wasn’t really into comics or science, but it still seemed pretty incredible.

“I wonder if we should try and talk to it,” Rachel suggested. She was standing there with her hands on her hips now, looking at the spaceship like it was a puzzle. “I mean, we should communicate. If that’s even possible.” Tobias nodded but I put an arm out to stop him.

“Alright, I’ll handle this. You see anything - I mean _anything_ \- out of ordinary and you are all running home. Right?” Marco laughed, but his voice was a little too high.

“Right, I’ll run off as soon as I see something weird.”

“Just do it, alright!” I stepped out of the shadow of the pipes, trying to act less scared than I felt. I felt pretty damn scared. It was the kind of scared where you wonder why you’re not pissing yourself, because you can’t imagine being more scared.

“Hey in there! Uh, Mr. … Whatever you are.” I held up my hands in the universally calming gesture of I-have-nothing-please-take-pity-and-don’t-shoot. “We, uh, we don’t really want any trouble. So if you could, you know, come out so we know you can’t shoot us with your ship it’d be… nice.” Even I thought that sounded lame.

“Have we considered the plausible possibility that the alien from space doesn’t speak English?” Marco asked.“Well, everyone speaks English on Star Trek,” Cassie said with a nervous laugh.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Tobias said from behind me. I turned to see he’d stepped forward, which aggravated me to no end.

<I know.>

I froze, felt my anger chill. The voice had been in my head. It occurred to me that hearing voices was a sign of insanity and maybe my brain had just snapped. Maybe I wasn’t in a field with my brother’s friends seeing a spaceship. Maybe I was on my way to a padded room.

“Did everyone hear that?” Tobias whispered. The others nodded, but I made an about-face back at the ship. I felt like an emotional roller coaster - first awe, then fear, now anger.

“Okay, alien thing. I want you to come out now and deal with me properly. We here on Earth speak face-to-face like f-, like _gentlemen_ , and I don’t want to see any funny business because there are children here and you’re not hurting them without dealing with me.”

“I’m not a child -“ Rachel began until the non-voice cut her off.

<I will not hurt you. Do not be frightened.>

“We won’t be frightened,” Tobias said. I really hated that kid at that moment. But there wasn’t time to protect the kid from himself as the ship was opening up.

And it really did just kind of open out of nowhere. A thin arc of light appeared and slowly a doorway appeared in the smooth wall of the ship. I stood there, hypnotized, and then the alien came out.

I’ve never really thought about aliens much. I kind of thought they’d be human-ish, but just with really big heads, like in Independence Day or something. This thing looked like a genetic freak. It looked like someone had taken the upper body of a man, then just sewed on a deer under that. And then dyed it blue, just for fun. Its face had no mouth, and it had eyes moving about like the stalks on a snail. Finally, I saw the inspiration for the ship’s scorpion tail arching over the alien’s back.

“Hello,” Tobias said. He’d somehow walked up so he was level with me. I finally gave up. Saving three kids had to be fine if the fourth was too stupid to remember self-preservation. He just stood there grinning. I returned to the alien with a scowl.

<Hello,> the alien said.

“Hi,” the kids said. They sounded closer, too. I cursed the idiocy of middle schoolers. I knew some really colorful curses at that time, too.

Suddenly, the alien staggered. He fell out of the ship to the ground. I rushed forward without thinking, grabbing one thin arm. Tobias had the other. We couldn’t really pick him up, though, so we just carefully helped him down to the ground. From this close, I could see a burn covering half the alien’s right side. He suddenly seemed a lot less scary.

“He’s hurt,” Cassie said.

<Yes. I am dying,> he said.

“Can we help you? We can call an ambulance or something,” Marco said.

“We can bandage that wound,” Cassie said.

<No. I will die. The wound is fatal.>

“Ok, I don’t know what an ambulance would really be able to do, but you can’t just… die. You’re the first alien to Earth, it’d be dumb if you only got here to die.” I didn’t know how, but I thought he was smiling at me. Something in his eyes seemed to smile at me at that moment.

<I have not given up quite yet. But I am not the first alien. There are many, many others.>

“Other aliens? Like you?” Tobias demanded.

The alien shook his big head slowly. <Not like me.> He cried out, and his pain echoed silently in my head.

<They are different. They have come to destroy you.>

No one laughed. It sounds hilarious now, but then it really didn’t. I suppose we should have doubted him, but it was really hard to. I mean, he was an alien, falling out of the sky and then literally tripping over his feet or hooves or whatever to die in the dirt. So yeah, we all just accepted he was speaking the truth at that point. I think we would’ve accepted anything. We were actually past jaded teenager skepticism. What a miracle.

<They are called Yeerks. Many are here. Hundreds, maybe more.>

“They’re already here? Why hasn’t anyone noticed them?” Marco said reasonably. “I think someone would have mentioned at school. Or on Wikileaks. They get all the juicy news.”

<You do not understand. Yeerks are different. They live in the bodies of other species.> The alien closed his eyes and concentrated. Suddenly a bright picture popped into my head. I saw a gray-green, slimy slug about the size of a rat.

<They are almost powerless without hosts. They - > Suddenly there was another spasm of pain our heads, but sadness, too. He didn’t have much time.

<The Yeerks are parasites. They must have a host to live in. They enter the brain, absorb it and take over the host’s thoughts and feelings. It is easier if the host is voluntary, but they can do so forcibly. The host may rebel, but they can only resist a little.>

“Look, these here are kids. _I’m_ a kid. You should really be telling the government.”

<They ambushed us,> the alien continued. <They will track me here, to destroy all traces of me and my ship. I sent a message to my home world. We Andalites fight the Yeerks. They will send help, but it will take time. A year possibly, or even more. The Yeerks will take over in that time. You must tell people. You must warn your people.>

“They’ll never believe us,” Marco said hopelessly. “No way. Even if we got video they’d say we just photoshopped it.”

<Then… Another way. Go into my ship. There is a small blue box, very plain. Bring it to me. Quickly! I have little time and the Yeerks will find me soon.>

“Ok,” I said, standing. I suppose I should have been worried leaving the others with him, but the alien seemed alright. He was dying on the ground, after all. “I’ll go get it.”

I was scared shitless looking up at that ship. I tried to look calm, though. It’d be bad to look scared now, with Jake’s friends there. Me being scared would lead to them being scared. More scared. Also having the midgets see me scared would be hard to live down. So I went in.

The ship was surprisingly simple. Everything was a creamy color and had rounded edges. Kind of reminded me of the Apple store, only less obnoxious. And the ground was covered with bright colored grass. I spotted the box easily. It was sky blue and around four inches on each side. It was heavy for such a small thing. Nearby there was a small, 3D picture of four aliens standing together. Two looked like kids - maybe even brothers. It was the Andalite’s family, I thought. I picked up the picture without really thinking as I left the ship.

“Here’s the box,” I told the Andalite. I gestured with the picture.

“Is this your family?”

<Yes. Keep it. The thought of it disintegrating with the rest of my ship…> The alien never finished the statement. He took the cube and I put the odd picture in my pocket. It didn’t fit well, but it was secure enough.

<I know you are young. But I can give you something to help you fight the Yeerks. It is a power no other human has ever had. But it may tip the scales, help you to hold the Yeerks at bay until the Andalites can arrive. This technology has been kept from the Yeerks. It enables us to pass unnoticed in many parts of the universe: the power to morph. We have never shared this power. But your need is great.>

“Morph? Morph how?” Rachel asked, and her eyes narrowed.

<To change your bodies,> the Andalite said. <To become any other species. Any animal. You will only need to touch a creature to acquire its DNA pattern, and you will be able to become that creature. It requires concentration and determination, but, if you are strong, you can do it. There are limitations. Problems. Dangers, even. But there is no time to explain it all… You will have to learn for yourselves.>

“He’s kidding right? I mean, become animals?” Marco laughed derisively.

“No, he’s not,” Tobias said softly.

“You can’t saddle us with this,” I told the alien. “You want us to put ourselves in front of hundreds of aliens?”

<If you choose to receive this power, than you must guarantee that you never fall into Yeerk hands. But it will not force you to fight. It will only give you the ability.>

“I’ll do it,” Cassie said.

“What’s that?” Rachel asked. I followed her gaze up. Overhead there were two pinpoints of bright red light shooting across the sky.

<Yeerks.> The Andalite said the word in our minds and I could feel his hatred. <You must decide. Quickly!>

“We have to,” Tobias said. “How else will we fight?”

“This is insane!” Marco said.

“I’d like more time, but it’s not really a choice,” Rachel said. “I’m for it.”

“Hold up, don’t be reckless,” I reasoned.

“Reckless? How is it reckless to stand up against an invasion?” Rachel looked me square in the eyes, determined. My aunt had always said Rachel and I were alike. Hard-headed and stubborn when we set our minds to something. And a bit idealistic, too, she’d said. That was what I saw right now, and she was right. We couldn’t seriously roll over and play dead. That wouldn’t keep the Yeerks away. If we accepted they were real, then we had to take whatever we could to try and stop them. We could figure out how later. But for now, we had to take the weapons we could.

“Alright. Alright, we don’t have a choice.”

“Am I the only sane person here?” Marco asked. “Not just the aliens, but the idea of a bunch of teens fighting hundreds of aliens?”

“You don’t need to join,” I said. “I’m not about to force you into a dangerous situation.”

“No, I mean. Look, I’m in. I just think it should go on record,” Marco said. “This is absolutely crazy and we’re all at least a little suicidal to go in for it.”

<You are decided?> the alien asked.

“Yeah,” I said. I was getting tired of speaking for everyone, but it couldn’t really be helped. The alien lifted the box.

<Each of you press your hand against one side of the cube.>

We did. Five hands, each pressed against one side. A sixth hand, with too many fingers and blue skin, pressed the sixth. Something like a warm shock ran through me. And then all at once it was over. It didn’t seem to take any time at all, for something so powerful.

<Go now,> the Andalite said. <Only remember - never remain in animal form for more than two Earth hours at a time. Never! That is the greatest danger of morphing. If you stay longer than two hours you will be trapped, unable to return to human form.>

“Two hours,” I repeated. Then I felt a wash of fear and dread crawling up my spine, originating from the alien. His eyes were craned towards the sky.

<Visser Three! He comes. Run! The Visser is the most deadly of your enemies. Of all Yeerks he alone has the power to morph, the same power you now have. Run!>

“Go!” I hissed. Rachel moved towards the alien. I grabbed her arm - a second time that night - and turned her around. “Run. We can’t help him now.” The Tobias kid had run to the ship, but was now crouched down by the Andalite’s side. The alien placed his pale blue hand over Tobias’s forehead; he rocked back, like he’d been shocked. I pulled him up and dragged him running, dodging around loose junk and potholes.

A red light snapped on. The spotlight from the landing ship illuminated the fallen Andalite. A second light joined the first as I pulled Tobias around a low crumbled wall. The others were huddled there. We were out of the immediate vicinity, but still close enough to see the Andalite on the ground. I knew we should’ve run straight out, but I also felt the need to stay. If this Visser was our deadliest threat, then I wanted to see the guy while I had the chance. I crouched down and peeked cautiously over the wall.

Two stubby ships touched down on either side of the Andalite ship, then a larger ship descended. A big rusted earthmover sizzled and disappeared as the giant black ship landed in its place. It was a vicious looking ship, like the handle of a battle ax. It wasted no time in opening a door, which also appeared out of nowhere.

Cassie started to scream, but I clamped my hand over her mouth.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, even though it wasn’t. “It’s going to be okay.” I didn’t really have anything else to say. Cassie’s hand was a vice around my wrist but I couldn’t tear my eyes from the ships. Tall, terrifying creatures came from the black ship. Sharp horn-blades stuck out from all over their bodies: elbows, knees, feet, shoulders; even the head had blades. Their heads were snake-like and their mouths sharp like a falcon.

<Hork-Bajir Controllers.> The alien was talking again, though the “sound” was fainter. <The Hork-Bajir are good people. They have all been enslaved by the Yeerks. They are to be pitied.> Then something else came out.

They were like giant, slimy centipedes. They were too big around to hold, if anyone had been crazy enough to try. Four wiggling red eyes ringed the tops until, pointing straight up at the very end, the round Taxxon mouth opened and closed continuously, ringed by hundreds of teeth. <Taxxon-Controllers,> the alien continued. <Taxxons are evil.> That seemed like a credible assessment to me.

All the aliens were carrying small pistol-like devices. They spread out, forming a ring around the Andalite ship. One of the Hork-Bajir came towards us. We all ducked down. I caught sight of Marco’s face - he was pale and his mouth was tight in terror.

<Silence!> the Andalite warned us. <Hork-Bajir do not see well in darkness, but their hearing is very good.>

The Hork-Bajir moved closer, but we all stayed glued to our spots. I cast an odd eye to Tobias, but the troublemaker seemed compliant now. I tried to calm my breathing. I was fairly certain the alien could hear my heart racing, if not the five hearts here. The Andalite had said good hearing.

And you know what? At that point, I did piss myself a little. So never doubt that you can ever be more terrified, because with a seven foot alien monster within five feet, you too can reach that level.

I guess God felt benevolent, though, because the Hork-Bajir moved away.

Actually, they all had turned back towards the ship. I turned to the ship myself, curious. The others seemed to be glued like me to the scene. It was hard not to be curious at what an army of bladed Godzilla beasts and man-sized centipedes stood in rank and file for.

I was almost disappointed when another Andalite stepped out of the ship.

<Visser Three,> the Andalite said. And if I thought the way he said Yeerk had hatred, then this was utter loathing.

But not just that. It was more. There was self-hatred there too. A self-deprecating that just couldn’t stand what the world was. That THAT could step forward. It felt so bizarre, having these emotions thrust into me. To me, the aliens looked the same. I’d only ever seen two Andalites. But clearly the Visser was worthy of the worst revulsion.

<Only once has a Yeerk been able to take an Andalite host,> the Andalite said. <Only Visser Three is an Andalite-controller. That is how he acquired his ability to morph, and you must not fall prey to his ambition!>

The Visser circled his prey confidently. I swear he looked just like the Andalite dying on the ground. I guess that sounds prejudiced. But I could tell, too, there was some awful about him. Maybe it was the way he didn’t seem to care that the Andalite was lying there, dying. I couldn’t have ignored something like that. When he spoke it just twisted my gut worse.

<Well, well,> Visser Three said. Within my head, of course. I was almost acclimated to this head thinking already. I fought down a bubble of hysterical giggles.

<If this isn’t Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. And how many of our fighters have you shredded today? Seven, or was it eight by the time the battle ended? It was a very quick fight.>

The Hork-Bajir made a strange huffing sound. I realized sickly that this was it’s approximation of laughter. I thought I was going to throw up, if that wouldn’t have led to my immediate demise.

<No matter,> the Visser continued. <Your dome ship has fallen. I saw the last bits burn as they fell into the atmosphere of this vibrant little planet.>

<There will be others,> the Andalite said. <The fight is not over.>

<Perhaps, but not for this world.> The Visser stepped closer; Elfangor had to retract his hand to escape its trample. <When the Andalites come here, I will be ready to face them. This world will be my contribution to the Yeerk empire. Why, with this many hosts, I don’t see why we shouldn’t visit the Andalite home world.>

Again the huffing. I could hear human laughter as well. _Human-controllers_ , I thought to myself. They weren’t like me. I couldn’t possibly watch this and laugh.

The Andalite’s tail arced, but the Visser easily pushed it aside. He suffered the tiniest knick on his tail. The attempt was feeble, at most. But I felt strength on seeing it. The alien wasn’t simply throwing in the towel.

And then, bright light. I shut my eyes, and when I opened them, one of the Yeerk fighters was destroyed. The tail of Elfangor’s ship glowed brilliantly in the light.

<Emrit 256! Burn his ship!>

Red beams lanced from the black ship, and the Andalite’s ship was destroyed. Nothing remained - not blackened rods, or even a pile of dust.

But that wasn’t the main spectacle on display. There weren’t two Andalites anymore. Now there was one Andalite - Elfangor, fallen, waiting - and a blue-shaded mass of flesh that was growing taller and taller. His four legs had become two, each the girth of a redwood tree. His head bloated, and a monstrous mouth split from his face.

“This isn’t real,” Cassie whispered. “This isn’t real.”

Looking back, I don’t even know when I stopped holding her head. I don’t even remember now if she was still gripping me. But I can’t forget that behemoth the Visser became. The monster took Elfangor in a tentacle - I can’t even fathom what loathsome world this came from - and hoisted him overhead by the neck.

“No no no,” Cassie whispered, over and over. I remember Rachel sheltering her, I think.

But mostly, I remember seeing Elfangor in the air, still striking at any flesh he could reach, and then dropped into the gaping mouth.


	2. Chapter 2

I wish I could say in that moment that I had tried to do something. I felt like all those times when you see something that’s just… wrong. I once saw this guy, this seemingly normal guy, who asked the head waiter if he could be seated far from the ‘cripple’ as it would upset his stomach. And I always look back at that memory and think, I should’ve punched that guy in the face. Except I didn’t because you don’t exactly start fist-fights in Santorini’s but still.

I felt the same way here. I wish I’d gone in and started wailing on a Controller. Or even tried. Picked up a rusted pipe or something and gone in. But I didn’t, and no one else did either. I guess I could make it up here and say I did - I’ve changed details here and there - but that’d feel like lying at this point.

The fact is I was terrified and I had no idea what I was watching until Elfangor was gone. He was gnashed by a hundred or so teeth and if I thought his earlier pangs of pain had been awful then I learned then what real nightmares are made of.

I only have middling bits of memory from there onwards. I know I heard the Visser crowing about his conquest over Elfangor. I remember the human laughter, the strange Hork-Bajir whuffing. And I remember a lot of running.

Actually, there is a clear memory I do have. I heard this voice, a voice I knew, saying to keep the heads of anyone they found. I pelted off another way, away from home. I could see the kids getting out of there, and I went the far way around. I threw a whole mess of debris from some homeless stake out and then tore a hole in the ground.

I’m pretty fast. I mean, okay, I’m not the fastest kid around. But I was in shape, and I had been pretty good at track and field back before I was 100% dedicated to basketball. And I was used to sprinting up and down the court. So I just remember sprinting like hell and then making an absurd amount of noise before pelting another way. I had long since lost track of the others. Apparently they split up, but it sounds like no one really followed them. I’d kind of made enough of a nuisance to have them all come my way.

The next thing I really remember is getting to my room, stripping off my clothes, and collapsing in bed. Not even getting through the front door, just falling into my bed and sleeping. I honestly cannot tell you how I got out of that site. I remember blips. I ducked into one of the mostly completed buildings. I had to slow up to find my way in the dark. I think I remember finding some homeless guy. I think I may have run off and left him for dead. But the only thing that really matters at the end, I guess, is that I didn’t die there. I just collapsed into my bed and fell into a thick, dreamless sleep.

I woke up abruptly the next morning. I was surprised - I normally like to sleep as late as I can on a Saturday. But the clock read seven thirty and I just felt drained.

For whatever reason, I couldn’t get back to sleep. By nine twenty something I accepted fate and crawled out of the bed. I had chalked up the whole experience to a bad dream until I started sorting through the mess I’d left. The alien’s family photo came tumbling out of my pants’ pocket and I just stared at it. It brought all the memories to mind again.

I came back from vomiting in the bathroom and made some actual progress of cleaning up my mess of a room.

I put the Andalite picture in my sock drawer and closed it. That was the best I could do at the moment to distance myself from the memories. My stomach couldn’t handle more. Around ten there was knocking at my door. Jake was on the other side, and all together too happy for my tastes.

“Hey. Mom’s making pancakes. She wanted to know if you want any.”

“Pancakes?”

“Yeah, they’re these fried dough things we eat with maple syrup. You might’ve heard of it.” I took a swipe at him, but there wasn’t any force behind it. Jake moved easily away.

“Ugh, I do not want to think about food…”

“Are you behind the vile smell in that bathroom?”“Don’t start. I’m not sick, and don’t let Dad think for a second I am. Just… tell Mom I’ll be down in a bit. I have to pick up some of this dirty laundry.” Jake gave me a wary eye.

“Are you sure you’re not sick?”

“Just get out of my face. Twit…”

Jake seemed to take the hint. He wandered back downstairs. I turned back to my room and tried to find the stomach for food.

Homer, Jake’s dog, wandered in. Okay, I guess he’s our dog. But when he’s annoying, which is pretty often, he’s Jake’s dog. He hates closed doors, so as soon as he sees one open, he tends to come barging in. I was happy for that then. It’s hard to feel bad with a dog around. He’s like, this super happy, excited bundle of fur. A few scratches and his tail is wagging back and forth like a fly swatter.

I kept trying to replay through my head what I thought had happened the night before. I had the picture, so that said that at least some of it was true. I thought about the morphing stuff he had talked about. I think he’d said tou just touch, then concentrate on the animal, and you can become it. Seemed like a weird power to me at the time.

I tried to think about Homer as I scratched his head. He got really calm - abnormally calm for Homer - and my arm felt warm.

 _Touch_ , I thought. _He said touch, then concentrate._ I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to concentrate on. My mind kind of wandered. But I started wondering what it would be like to _be_ Homer. He always seemed really happy. Was he actually happy? Did dogs feel happy, like I felt happy? What would it be like to have a dog’s sense of smell? And hadn’t I heard somewhere that dogs were colorblind? Was that true? What was it like to be colorblind?

My hand itched and I scratched it. Except my arm felt way too hairy. I looked down to see orange fur.

Homer started going ballistic, and the sound wreaked havoc on my ears. I pushed him out of the room, then caught sight of myself in the mirror.

I was me, mostly. Fur had sprouted on my arms, but my ears had also changed to. They were a little higher, a bit longer, but the insides were changed too. Everything sounded really loud. I realized, now that Homer stopped yapping, that I could hear Mom and Jake downstairs, clear as if I was there with them. She was telling him to call me down to eat. I flinched when he started yelling up the stairs.

“Augh! No, no, okay, back to me, be skin, be me…” I was happy to see the changes recede. I thought about me, about being myself with every last bit of my brain. All of the fur was gone by the time Jake called again.

Over the course of eating breakfast - which did not sit well - I tried to think about what to do. Mom mentioned how little I was eating, especially compared to what I normally had. Dad inquired about how sick I’d been in the morning. But I couldn’t concentrate because I didn’t know if Jake’s friends were ok. I was so distracted it took three tries before I heard Mom saying my name.

“Tom, honey, Rachel’s on the phone. She says she wants to talk to you.”

“Oh, okay. I - well, I’ll pick it up in the living room, if that’s fine.” I left my marginally eaten pancakes and walked to the other phone. I saw Jake take some of my pancakes from my plate - I’d have take him in a head lock or something to remind him how things worked around here at some point.

“Hey, Rachel.”

“Hey, sorry to bother you, Tom.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I just wanted to thank you for the thing yesterday.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, standing up for me and my friends. It can be a dangerous world, you know? But you’re a true… _Gentleman_. So, you know, thanks.”

“Of course. Anything for family, right?” I hesitated, unsure how to ask without sounding crazy and talking about aliens. I knew my family could hear well enough from the kitchen. “How is everyone? Your friends I mean?”

“Okay. I mean, dealing, I guess. There was a call chain. Everyone’s home safe.”

“Good, that’s really good.”

“Actually, well, Cassie asked me to help her out today, but then she mentioned that what they really needed was some muscle. They’re looking for someone to do some heavy lifting on some old cages?”

“Oh. Uh, like today?”

“That’s what she said. I’m just a messenger here.”

“Okay,” I said. “Yeah, I can help out today. What are cousins for?” Rachel gave me the address and I jotted it down on our message pad. By the time I returned to the kitchen my pancakes were half-eaten. I tried to give Jake a piece of my mind but couldn’t really muster the strength. So I just pushed them at him.

“Just steal them already.”

“What did Rachel want?” he asked as he ate.

“Oh, just some jerks yesterday, gave her a hard time. Anyway, I’m heading out. Don’t eat too many of those, or you’ll get even more freakishly tall.” Jake tried to kick at me half-heartedly as I walked past. I changed into some clothes I didn’t care about much then left.

Turns out Cassie’s parents live in the back end of nowhere in the woods. Or at least, on the end of the forest. They had a house and an old barn around back. I saw Rachel and Tobias there already, so I knew it had to be the right place. She turned and waved me up.

“So am I actually moving cages or was that just an excuse?”

“Oh, I don’t know. There’s probably something to help with.” She pushed a newspaper into my hands and kept staring at this horse running around the field.

“‘Numerous calls came in around 10:15 last night,” I read out loud, “claiming to see bright lights and a flying saucer just east of the highway. Police on the scene discovered a number of teenagers, who ran from authorities. Fireworks were found on the scene. Anyone with information as to the teenagers are asked to come forward with their information.’” It went on to quote the police spokesman laughing about flying saucers. Then it gave a reward for anyone with information.

“What do you think about that?” she asked.

“Well, it’s clearly a lie,” I said. “It all really happened.”

“Yeah, we figured that out.” She nodded forward at the horse. “Cassie seems to be enjoying it at least.”

“What? That isn’t…” I looked again at the horse. As it came in close, it started to change.

Morphing is really weird. And not artistic Tim Burton weird. Arms and ears and everything grow with no real rhyme or reason. You could be morphing a cat or something, and the first thing might just be shrinking down to the right size, or you stay your right size, but your nose flattens and whiskers burst out. It’s normally pretty horrific, but those first couple of times, especially watching others do it, I just kept thinking these special effects were really good. I liked a good horror flick, and the horror of morphing would have been pretty good in a film. But then later you realize what’s happening, like you feel your bones dissolve and you know it should hurt even though it doesn’t, and THAT can mess you up pretty bad, if you think about it too much.

So I just think about horror flicks.

Cassie apparently has a gift for it, though. She came sauntering up, her top completely returned to human while the rest of her remained a horse, like a centaur come to life. She reminded me of the Andalite for a bit.

“Oh my god, no. No, why would you do that?” I turned to see Marco walking up the long drive. “You’re in the middle of a field. Do you know who could come driving up this way? Do you know what NSA satellite might be trained on you?”

“No one ever comes up this way,” Cassie said.

“Yeah, well I’d like to say police don’t come knocking at my door ever, but guess what I got this morning?”

“They knew you were at the site?” I asked. He shook his head.

“No, they were moving through the whole neighborhood. I had the unlucky misfortune of going out to get the paper. They seem pretty serious about finding us. Did you see that article?”

“Oh yeah. Those nutty kids,” Rachel said. Cassie hoisted herself over the fence, fully human again. She was wearing a skin-tight leotard, blue. Marco nodded, but his face was sickly pale.

“That’s good, with the clothes. Tobias paid me a visit, too, at sleep o’clock in the morning. Couldn’t believe all the visitors. First he’s cat-boy, then he’s naked-boy in my room. Let’s just say I’m happy my Dad doesn’t pay attention to stuff, or I’d have a really weird situation to explain. You know, other than aliens.” Tobias looked the other way, but I could see he was red.

“Normally they don’t care about this sort of junk,” I said, looking at the article again.

“Hm, I wonder, what could possibly be different here? I’m looking for the question to this: A mind-controlling alien has taken up residence in this already seriously messed up authority force.”

“You think the police are… these Yeerk things?” I asked.

“Makes sense,” Rachel said. Why else would they be looking so much.” I nodded.

“Which,” Marco said, “is why _I’m_ thinking public displays of… oh God, I can’t even believe I’m thinking these words like they’re normal. We can’t go _morphing_ around like it’s the new fad. I personally do _not_ want a slug in my brain.”

“They could be everywhere,” Rachel continued. “Teachers? People in the government? Newspapers?”

“My money’s on math teachers,” Marco said. “That isn’t English what they teach.”

“I really tried to tell myself it was a dream,” Rachel said.

“But it’s not,” Tobias said. “You can’t honestly look back and think of the Andalite, of… Elfangor, and say it wasn’t real.” Everyone got really quiet.

“So then what do we do about it?” Cassie asked.

“I have an idea,” Marco said. “We ignore it. We shouldn’t have to deal with this. So we don’t. We don’t morph, we don’t talk about it, and we can just deal with our lives.”

“How can you _say that_ ,” Tobias asked.

“Because we could get _killed,_ ” Marco said. _“_ Do you know what that means? You think about the consequences of stepping up to _aliens_ that can _disintegrate giant construction equipment_? Do you think about what your parents would do if - “ Marco stopped talking suddenly. The kids were all quiet, but I wasn’t sure what was wrong. Marco was right. What would my parents think if I just disappeared like that. Would they even find a corpse?

“I’m not going to forget what happened,” Tobias said. “Pretending it’s not true doesn’t suddenly fix things. So, yeah, maybe I’m crazy, but I’m going to do something.”

“Fine, Tobias. You can think what you want of me. I’m a coward, I’m a weasel, I don’t care. But if we’re done being idiots, I have to go home. My Dad can’t cook for crap and he’ll probably forget to even make dinner if I don’t do it for him.”

“Wait, Marco,” I said. “You’re right, this is really dangerous. And we have to be careful. But, I don’t know if we can just ignore this either.”

“I’m not doing it,” Marco said. “You said it yesterday. You’re not going to make me.”

“No, I’m not. But if any one of us does do something, it’ll put us all at risk. I said we’d decide after what to do, and well. Now we have the time. So we have to agree.” Marco was glaring at me, and I could tell he was furious. I guess he felt like the odd man out. I was mostly on his side, though. It was really dangerous. They didn’t cover warfare much in middle school, but I kept thinking of my history classes. We’d rattle off the causalities of a war like they were nothing. A thousand people died in this battle. A hundred thousand during this war. And here we were, just five of us. I didn’t really like the odds.

“What’s with the barn, anyway?” I asked.

“It’s the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center,” Rachel said, like that was a normal thing to know.

“My Dad runs it,” Cassie said. “We take in all sorts of injured animals. He gets a lot of calls about animals hit by cars. Or sometimes we find animals in the woods.”

“Really?” I asked. “Like, dogs and cats?”

“No, more like porcupines, raccoons. Normally three or four birds at a time.” I walked inside the barn and the others followed. The barn was filled with cages, maybe a third of which were filled. I could see a bunch of birds along the back row. There was a fox curled up in the cage closest to me.

“This is really… convenient,” I said. “I mean, if we went ahead with the morphing thing.” Cassie nodded.

“I was thinking,” she continued, “with the morphing. Well, we could really help animals. We could communicate on their level! We might even be able to save some endangered species! Oh, you shouldn’t put your fingers there.” I pulled my hand back from the fox’s cage.

“And if humans are the next endangered species?” Tobias asked.

“I really hate to agree with Marco,” Rachel said, “but this is really big. Probably too big for us. I mean, we’re just kids.”

“But we can’t trust anyone,” Tobias said. “Anyone could be a Controller. If we tell the wrong person, we’re all dead. And then the whole world will be doomed.”

It was a lot to think about. On the one hand, we could die out right just fighting these Yeerks. On the other hand, if we ignored it, we risked letting the Yeerks gain more ground. Even worse than that, we might become Controllers ourselves, without knowing it. Who knew how they were finding hosts. And if we told anyone, tried to take the middle route, we’d almost certainly be screwed. Tell the wrong person, highway to Slug-town. Tell the theoretically right person, and we’d be laughed right back onto the same highway.

“We have to vote one way or the other,” I said. “If we tell anyone, they’ll either never believe us, or we’re doomed outright if they’re a Controller. So we have to vote - do nothing, or try what the Andalite suggested.”

“Well, I vote we try to live long enough to get a driver’s license. Not just Tom,” Marco said.

“I vote we do what the Andalite said - fight,” Tobias said. It hadn’t been a question where those two stood.

“You’ve never been in a fight,” Marco sneered. “You can’t handle the punks at school, but now you want to take on Visser freakazoid?” Tobias said nothing, but a blush spread up his neck.

“I vote with Tobias,” Rachel said, giving Marco a dirty look. “Tom’s right. We can’t tell anyone. And if we can’t get the right people to fight, I guess we’ll have to handle it ourselves.

“We should probably think this over,” Cassie said. “It’s a big decision. It’s not like we’re deciding whether to wear jeans or a skirt.”

“Speaking for myself, that’s not even a decision,” Marco said. “Skirt.”

“Marco, just.” I tried to think of the right words. “Let’s wait a bit. No one say anything, we’ll get back to normal life. But… I mean, keep an eye out. We don’t know where these Controllers are. So if you see something suspicious, then, you know. Report it.”

“To what, to you?” Marco asked.

“If you have to,” I said. “Just be careful.” I walked off, but then I heard the steps on the gravel behind me.

“Is Jake at home?”

“Should be. He’s got chores,” I said.

“I never got the chance to give him a piece of my mind yesterday. Forgot all about it,” he said. Then he nodded at my bike. “What, no wheels?”

“Freedom is apparently when parents buy a car exclusively for the kids. I’m still on the timeshare system.”We biked back towards my place. Marco was pretty quiet, which seemed odd to me. Jake was just dropping a load of trimming from the yard work when we pulled up.

“Are you stealing my best friend now?” Jake asked.

“I’ve moved on to Jake 2.0,” Marco said. “You know, since you’ve _stopped hanging out with me_.” Jake smacked his forehead.

“I forgot! I’m sorry, man. It’s just the Sharing had this big get together last night. You know, maybe we should just hang out there. It’s really cool.” Marco just dropped his bike and marched up to Jake, sticking his finger into Jake’s chest.

“I’m not gonna join your new club just to stay friends. That’s not what it’s about! You make a promise, you’re supposed to keep it.” And then it was like the air had run out of Marco. He just looked exhausted. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”

“No, I know. How about you come in. We can play some games.” Marco just nodded and shrugged.

They played in Jake’s room, but he didn’t shut his door, so I could hear them talking from my room. They talked about normal things. The baseball season. Classes. Girls. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I guess I could’ve closed my door. And then Jake asked, “So, you were at the mall last night, right?”

I took in a deep breath. After a pause, Marco responded.

“You mean, when you ditched me at the comic store? Yeah, I was there.”

“Did you hear about all that stuff going on with the construction site last night?” I tried to pretend that this was a normal conversation. Jake must’ve read it in the news and gotten curious.

“What stuff?” Marco asked.

“The police said they found some kids setting off fireworks. These morons who live around the site decided it was a flying saucer or something.” Marco laughed.

“Wow. That’s crazy.”

“Did you come back through the construction site?”

“Nope,” Marco said. “I couldn’t be bothered to wait around for you. So I hiked up to DQ, treated myself to a blizzard without you.”

“So you didn’t see any kids hanging around there?”

“No, like I said, I wasn’t there that late.”

“Oh. Well, I just thought it was kind of cool. Kids with fireworks getting some complete dips to believe in aliens. Crazy, right? Aliens and spaceships and little green men from Mars?”

“The only alien state I recognize is the Klingon Empire.”

“Oh, and the Federation is nothing then?”

“I recognize and submit to our Klingon overlords. I grovel at the knees of the High Council.” They laughed. They talked more about their sci-fi shows and comics. I just kept thinking about Jake asking that. He isn’t really one to read the paper.

Marco got up to use the restroom, but he stopped in my doorway and waved at me. Then he just shrugged in Jake’s direction. I nodded.

Jake was acting really suspicious. And if Marco agreed, then it needed some investigation.


	3. Chapter 3

I shut my door after that. I really didn’t want to listen anymore. So I tried to get back to my stuff. Which is mostly sports, so I was just looking up things to see how the games had gone that week. I had a big test coming up so I should have studied, but I was having enough problems getting back into my normal interests. I thought about calling up Dan and hanging out. Dan’s on the team with me, so we often go out after practice. There’s a smoothie place right next to school, and a lot of kids go there. But then there was this fluttering sound at the window. A bird was at my window, just flapping.

<Let me in, all right? This is actually really hard to do!> My mouth dropped, but I opened the window. The bird flew straight in and landed on my dresser. It was almost two feet long, mostly brown, with gnarled talons and a sharp hooked beak.

“Tobias, is that you?” It was weird to see a bird nod.

<Yeah. You were right about the Center. There was an injured hawk right there. An osprey too, but I liked the red-tailed hawk. And you should really try it. You think flying will be amazing, but it’s even better than you can imagine.>

“I thought we were going to wait, not morph while we sorted things out.”

<I never agreed to that,> Tobias said. I couldn’t tell if he was contrite or intentionally rebellious.

“Well, just, morph back. You can’t stay for over two hours, remember?” He didn’t do anything for a time, but eventually he sort of hopped to the bed. His feathers began to run together like candle wax until it was smooth skin. It looked like he was covered in intense tattoos. The beak receded into soft lips; the talons split into toes. Halfway through he was a blocky ball of tattooed flesh with stubby little arms. I felt laughter giggle up my throat. He looked absolutely revolting, which is to say, pretty fantastic if you’re into being revolted. Soon he was naked on my bed.

“I see what Marco was on about about the awkward situations.”

“Uh, yeah,” Tobias said. “I haven’t really figured out clothes yet.” I dug out a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. They had gotten too small for me, and I should’ve given them to Jake. Except the kid had had a major growth spurt, so maybe the pants wouldn’t fit him either. The clothes dwarfed Tobias, but he just looked so happy.

“You _really_ have to try it. There’s nothing like flying. Just. The rush! And the eyes. I was maybe a half mile or more in the air, but I could read the watches of people on the street. So cool.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I was thinking about what you said, looking for something suspicious. So I thought I’d get a bird’s eye view.” He grinned; I rolled my eyes. “I was looking for something that might be a Yeerk pool.”

“What’s a Yeerk pool,?” I asked.

“It’s where the Yeerks live in their natural state. Every three days a Yeerk has to leave its host body and go into the Yeerk pool to soak up nutrients. Especially Kandrona rays.”

“And you know this how?”

“At the end, you saw how the Andalite touched my forehead?” I nodded. “Well, he gave me, like, visions. Pictures. Information. It’s a lot and I’m still sorting through it all. But I worked out that bit.” I could see a little better why Tobias wanted to fight so much. I had a feeling knowing how the Yeerks worked in such detail would make me ready to fight, too.

“So I thought I’d look from above. I saw a lot of ponds and lakes, but no Yeerk pool.”

“What would you even do if you did find it?” I asked.

“Blow it up,” Tobias said. It was flippant. Like everyone blew things up. A weekend hobby. Everyone would go out for ice cream after. Put those old pop-rocks on it just for the occasion.

“So then what are you doing here?” I asked.

“Oh. I was… well, I was looking, and I saw your house. But I realized I never told you about these things the Andalite told me. Gave me.” Tobias looked confused for a moment.

“Well, thanks for reporting in, but we have other issues.”

“What issues?” Tobias asked. I hesitated. I wasn’t even really sure how to put it. My brother Jake has been asking weird questions? But maybe he was honestly just curious. I was kind of on paranoid overdrive. These kids just kept coming in like doofuses hobbling on ill-formed mutated feet, ready to show everyone their freaky morphing powers. And now Jake was getting weird. Maybe I’m prone to paranoia but I felt like the white girl in the slasher film at that point, about two steps from a vicious death. And I really didn’t want to be her.

“I just think this house might not be… safe… for, uh, these kinds of discussions,” I whispered. Tobias gave me a bewildered look.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I just… Look, Marco is with Jake over there and I really don’t want to explain why you’re here. Wearing my clothes. Oh god, this just got so much worse than alien invasions. Before I was just worried about Jake asking too much about this whole construction site police bust…”

“I don’t think I understand the issue…” Tobias said. The sound in the hall increased, and then after a brief quiet period, there was a soft knock.

“Tom, I think - “ Marco stopped in the doorway and stared. “Oh my god. Did the naked Tobias fairy visit you too?”

“I’m not a fairy!” Tobias shouted but I clamped my hand over his mouth.

“Okay, we need to be quiet in Tom’s room of complete no-homo, thank you very much.”

“I was just going to say…” Marco eyed Tobias warily. “Jake started going on about the Sharing again. He’s been pushing that place way too much considering he only started going a few weeks ago. So I was going to say we should check it out. Not you!” He pointed at Tobias who had been nodding silently.

“Why not me?” Tobias asked.

“We need to be sneaky about this. And you are not sneaky. Seriously, how many male bedrooms do you need to invade?”

“I am not gay! Stop making it sound like I’m -“

“Children, please, let’s focus on the alien invasion.” I felt very ridiculous saying that, and even more ridiculous now for anonymously reporting that statement.

“Right. I’ve gotta go meet Jake downstairs. Tom?” He dropped a piece of paper on the desk. “Text me, we’ll figure out a time for this.” And then Marco left. I picked up the paper and started dialing Marco’s number into my phone. I then sent him a text, asking about the plan.

“I should’ve gotten Rachel’s number in here earlier,” I thought out loud.

“Oh… Yeah, she gave it to me, but I… well, I left it in my pocket at home.”

“Just give me your number, then you can send it to me.”

“I don’t… have a cell phone.” Tobias stared at the floor.

“Oh. Well, that’s fine. I can get it some other way.”

“I have an email,” Tobias said. “There’s a computer at school that I check it at.”

“Of course.” He wrote the email down below Marco’s number. My phone buzzed and I found a message from Marco. Apparently the Sharing was having a meeting tonight out on the beach. I felt sort of bad for Tobias at that point. What kind of kid didn’t have a cell phone?

“Hey, you know, Marco was kind of an ass. We’re going to look into this Sharing group. But you said you could see really well as a bird?”

“As a _hawk_ ,” he said. “And yeah. Nothing escapes a hawk’s eye.”

“Well, how about you run surveillance on us? Things seem fishy and I’d like someone watching my back.” Tobias nodded. We made plans to meet out on the beach long before the meeting would happen, and then Tobias left. He decided to fly out, which I guess was good because I got to keep my clothes.

That sounds so much weirder when I write it.

  


******

  


By that evening we had all exchanged numbers and gathered out on the beach. Marco was going in with Jake - we agreed no contact would be best. Rachel had found an ad for the Sharing and if she and Cassie ran into Jake and Marco they could write it off as a coincidence.

I told them I’d have my side covered. I didn’t tell them Tobias would be overhead as a bird. I also failed to mention I planned to attend as a dog.

<Can you see the watch face still?>

<Yes,> Tobias said. <I can still see the watch face. I can see the pixels of the watch face. I can see the tiny scratches that cover the surface of the watch clasp as it has been opened and closed.>

<Okay, okay, I get it. Just keep an eye on it. I don’t want to accidentally fail this two hour thing.>

<It’s been ten minutes. You’ve spent a total of ten minutes as a dog. And the first three minutes you went running down the beach barking at seagulls.>

<Well they were really fucking distracting!> The weirdest thing about morphing, after the horror-movie melting physical changes, is the psychological effects. You kind of get a mindset from the animal too. It didn’t kick in until I finished the morph, but when it did, the dog-mind took over completely. I was just completely overwhelmed. Sand! Salt Air! Birds! Bark bark bark bark bark! I’m happy only Tobias saw that. But now I was more or less in control.

The Sharing wasn’t hard to find. They had this big bonfire, and everyone was just hanging out. There was a volleyball game. Hot dogs and hamburgers. Veggie burgers for those who wanted them.

I just stayed near the edges, watching. I tried to pretend I was a tired stray, having a nice rest, but no one really bothered me. Well, except…

“Oh my god, look at this poor dog!” If dog eyes were capable, I would’ve rolled my eyes at Cassie as she approached.

<I am a very poor and pitiful dog. Please bring me a delicious barbecued cow meat product. My panting tongue salivates for its flesh.>

“ _Tom!”_ Rachel hissed. Cassie just looked at me with wide eyes.

<Yeah. Um. Yeah. I told you I’d be inconspicuous.>

“How is a dog inconspicuous?”

<Well, did you think I was a concerned human being looking for alien imperialists?>

She didn’t have an answer to that.

It didn’t take long for me to explain about me and Tobias. We were an hour and six minutes into our morphs at that point.

“Marco and Jake were playing volleyball, but I didn’t see them after that. A whole bunch of people left for this ‘full member’ meeting.” Rachel rolled her eyes. “Apparently it will ‘change my world’ or something.”

<Where?> I asked.

“Over that sand dune,” Cassie said, pointing farther down the beach.

<Okay. I’m going in. Dog spy, on the prowl.> It felt better to joke about it. Like hey, I’m just this teen who’s a dog, looking for aliens. Hilarious! If I just didn’t think about the gnashing teeth - well, I should never think about the gnashing teeth. First rule of life is never think about gnashing teeth.

Ever.

Anyway, I went looking for the full member meeting. It wasn’t hard to find. Even easier with Tobias guiding me. The guy may have been ready to throw himself suicidally into a war, but no one can say he didn’t pull his weight from day one.

I was happy that I’d already settled into the morph. There are many distracting things on the beach for a dog. But I brought myself in towards the meeting, just trying to be a carefree, normal stray dog, and then I plopped myself down. I couldn’t see very well, but I could hear every last thing and smell a lot too.

This one guy was even standing on guard. And all I could think was, really? A guard? What kind of boy scout outfit needs a guard? But he barely glanced at me. It was pretty amazing how free I was as a dog.

“He should be here soon,” I heard Jake say. I saw him, standing in the crowd of full members. “Wait, here he comes.”

There was a stirring, muttering sound. I heard footsteps. I moved a little closer, then dug at the ground, like I’d smelled something.

“Everyone, quiet. We have problems.”

I knew that voice. That was the voice I remembered from the construction site when the Andalite had died. He had said to keep the heads of anyone they found. I looked up at the group. The man talking was close. My sight was really bad, but when he turned the right way, I recognized him. It was Assistant Principal Chapman. He worked at the middle school. When I was there he used to pull me into his office all the time. I used to yell at students a lot when they were acting like asses, and Chapman had to deal with me. Sometimes he was on my side, sometimes not. But he didn’t want me starting fights regardless. And I really couldn’t believe it, that he was a Controller. Looking back, he had seemed like an okay sort of guy. Sometimes I got into real fist fights, and he’d just toss my detentions out the window because I’d been punching in some guy’s face for smacking a girl’s ass. It was really hard to see him here, know I’d heard his voice at the construction site.

“Item one. We still have not found the brats who were at the construction site,” Chapman said. His voice was hard. “I want them found. Visser Three wants them found. Does anyone have any clues?”

The realization sunk in that if he was there, he had to be a Controller. That they all were Controllers. That we had actually found more evidence that they were here, and my brother was one of them. No one at the meeting spoke. Then I heard Jake.

“It could have been anyone,” Jake said. “But it might be the one who’s my host’s friend, Marco. I know he goes through the site, and was close that evening. He’s here tonight. We can either make him ours, or kill him.”


	4. Chapter 4

I needed air. I needed drugs to make me not understand reality. I needed my brother to never suggest killing a human being _because Jake is my baby brother and he doesn’t say shit like that._ So I kind of went a little ballistic. I asked Tobias where everyone was and he said they were fine. Marco was talking to one of the people at the meeting, and apparently the conversation didn’t look enjoyable. Rachel and Cassie were sitting on a log watching the waves. He asked me what was wrong.

<No wrong. I mean all wrong. I mean. Okay, these are definitely evil aliens. These are evil awful aliens and we are all probably going to die. But I don’t want that to be tonight. So, uh, don’t let anyone do anything dangerous. Shit, danger, shit, how long has it been?>

<An hour and twenty eight minutes,> Tobias said mechanically.

<Okay. Well, than that’s not so bad. Maybe we should morph back just to be careful.>

<We have over thirty minutes,> Tobias said. <Just let me enjoy this.>

<This is not a joy ride!> I listened a little longer before I made my way back across the dunes. I let the dog brain indulge in a few distractions. It was kind of nice to sit back and let the dog’s happiness take over. I was not happy. I would’ve probably vomited again, if I’d been human. There’s probably a limit to how much humans can vomit and I am one hundred percent certain that I continually push that limit.

I plopped down beside the girls and reported the details. Cassie scratched behind my ears and it felt pretty good. Helped me not think too hard about what I’d heard. Marco walked over to our little meeting about halfway through, saying ‘the birdman filled him in on Operation Dog’.

“Chapman?” Marco said. “Oh, I should’ve known. He’d love to have kid’s heads on spikes outside his office.”

“He’d kill us?” Cassie asked.

<Well, he only mentioned Marco, but he also said killing at a Sharing meeting would bring bad press.>

“Well, thank God for that,” Marco said.

<Look,> I said. <They think we’re gonna speak up and reveal ourselves. They’re just waiting to see some kids fly off the handle. But if we keep quiet they’ll never know.>

“So we don’t talk,” Marco said. “We walk away, like I said.”

“You want to leave this here?” Rachel asked. “You are seriously going to walk away from an alien _invasion_ and pretend it doesn’t affect you?”

“Yes, that is _exactly_ what I’m going to do!”

“Jake was there?” Cassie asked. I would’ve missed it without dog ears, she said it so quietly.

<Yeah, Jake was there,> I said. It hurt to admit it. Rachel and Marco fell silent at that point.

“Was he okay with this? Was he… What did he say about killing…?” I couldn’t tell her. Maybe she’ll read this, I hope not. Jake’s Yeerk - never Jake - explained how they might work around and use Marco to find the teens, or how they could kill him without attracting attention. It was pretty racist, and really cold and calculating. But I didn’t tell Cassie those details, and I can’t report what was actually said. It was really fucking awful to hear though, and just disturbing to hear it out of my brother’s mouth.

<The Yeerk in Jake’s head supported killing teens who might’ve been at the site,> I said.

“Well that’s not okay,” Rachel said. It was so quiet in that circle. I mean I could hear everything. The volleyball game was done, but some kids were still trying to bounce the ball around. A lot of people were chatting. Another group was complaining about the food condiments. Standard crap. But our group was just flabbergasted.

“This is mental,” Marco said. “This is absolutely crazy and there’s no way we can handle something like this.”

“ _Fuck you_.” Rachel pushed Marco back. “Are you seriously going to let them have Jake? _Is that seriously acceptable?”_ It’s the first time I think I’ve ever seen Marco try to hit anyone. But I don’t know him that well.

I jumped between them but there was little I could really do. I chomped on Marco’s pants and Cassie was pulling Rachel back.

“ _Fuck it stop_. Seriously _stop biting my leg._ This is not okay. That’s not what I’m saying. But hell, we can’t just get ourselves killed. We can’t fight an _army._ ”

“I’ll fight fifty armies for my cousin!”

<Stop yelling!> I yelled in their heads. Which now that I write it sounds dumb. <We all need to calm down. No one is leaving Jake to any bat-shit disgusting slugs. But if we’re gonna help him we have to work together.> I could smell them calm down, which was good because the ‘full member meeting’ was done. And, well, weird if you’ve never been a dog. The Controllers were interspersing with everyone else again.

<Just keep your heads low and get home safe. I’ll think of something to investigate further. Just don’t do anything dangerous and if you see anything or think of anything, let me know. I think we’ve all got each other’s numbers now so just be careful.>

Marco talked some more about conspiracy theories and to be careful what we say even in text, but at the end of the day it was back to the Sharing party and animal fun time. I told Marco to duck out early, and later tell Jake he bailed because he was too bored.

I worried during the next week over what to do next.

I completely zoned out in class, and bombed a test. The teacher called me in and asked me if everything was okay, or had anything happened lately. I guess I wasn’t hiding my anxiety very well. But let the record show my worries were legitimate! Even if it’s an anonymous record that I’m writing and fudging a little here and there because some shit is too embarrassing to even say anonymously.

I just couldn’t figure out how to better the situation. I wanted to help Jake. I wanted to free him. But after speaking with Tobias, apparently the only hope was to get Jake out while the Yeerk was eating. Once every three days they had to swim in that pool, so Jake would just be Jake during that time. I could also starve the Yeerk out but that sounded psychologically scarring.

So I waited and mused and fumed.

Weirdly enough it was Marco who sought me out. He asked to talk and sent me an address. We sat down in an Applebee’s for the most awkward conversation of my life. Probably. At least to date. It’s weird to have a heart to heart with Marco.

“This is seriously shit,” Marco said once the waiter had walked away. “This is really the worst of all possibilities.”

“What?” I asked. I’d been out of the loop a while.

“Controllers. Jake. Chapman. This is the worst.” I nodded.

“It is. But we have to be practical. We can get him out of this.”

“No, we _can’t.”_ It was hard to look at Marco then. He wasn’t being a dick. He was seriously upset. I had never seen him upset before. “We honestly will probably fail at helping him. And I want to get him out more than anything, but I don’t think we will and I don’t even know what these Yeerks can do yet.” I didn’t really know what to say.

“So… You’re going to do nothing instead?”

“Of course not,” Marco retorted. “I’m gonna get my best friend out. Okay, maybe not, but I’m gonna try.” Marco let out a deep sigh and took a drink from his milkshake. “What I meant to say is I’m in. I know everyone is plotting and thinking, and you’re all crazy and we’re all gonna die, but I’m _in_. Okay?” I nodded.

“Okay.” And it was weird, but I understood. He was Jake’s friend but I’d known him too. Marco’s life was not fun. His mom died not long ago, and then his dad went to pieces. Marco was picking up all those pieces and trying to navigate middle school at the same time. So the fact that he was willing to take this up too impressed me.

“Understood. You’re in, but I won’t let anyone push you on why you’re on board. I’ve been thinking about this a lot.”

“Oh not more thinking. My ear is done with the thinking. Did you know Cassie’s been sneaking around behind our backs? She apparently followed Chapman around the school.”

“She did?” That surprised me.

“Yeah. Apparently there’s something weird about the janitor’s closet. Tobias thinks it’s the Yeerk pool thing. Which sounds like a horrible vacation spot. I mean, seriously, what sun are they gonna get under a school?” I felt a little hurt that I had missed all this.

“We only just found out about the closet,” Marco explained “So here’s me reporting in. Seriously, Rachel is planning this expedition. She wants to storm in, like a freaking strike force. You have to come in and talk sense to her. I’m not following that maniac into a death trap.”

“And you think I’m going to make a better plan?”

“Tom, anything is a better plan than Rachel’s plan. Besides…” Marco dropped his voice to a whisper. “You’re the only one who kept a cool head when the alien showed up. So yeah, maybe you’ll make a better plan. Maybe even a good plan, but please don’t quote me on that.”

It was pretty humbling to have Marco’s trust in this. He was giving me permission to probably get us all killed, and I did not feel prepared to take on that kind of role. I had to talk with the others and see what was really going on. But if Marco wanted to trust me, then I guess I had to think of something.

“Okay, so we found the pool thing. Going down there is probably our best bet for getting Jake out. And you’re right that a straight assault is a bad idea, but we should probably be ready for trouble. I don’t want to face one of those Hork-Bajir things as a dog. I can tell you biting a person’s leg is not a good battle strategy.” Marco nodded.

“Right. General Tom makes an excellent point. Task number one. Get dangerous morphs.”

And Marco knew exactly where to go.

It turned out that Cassie’s mom worked at The Gardens. I was beginning to think Cassie was a plant from some cosmic overlord. Whatever, as long as it worked to our benefit. We had to pay to get in, but she got us a discount and then showed us all the ropes. Marco may be an annoying little shit, but this had been a really good idea. The Gardens is half amusement park and half zoo. The rides are good - none better in the area. As far as I know the zoo is good. I normally skip that side.

But we were there for the zoo. So we went there.

“If any of the staff stop us,” Cassie said, “we’re here to see my mom.” Cassie had guided us through an employees-only door to a maze of whitewashed walls and numbered doors. We had to trust her judgment on where we were. She stopped in front of one door and asked, “How do you guys feel about gorillas? We have Big Jim here.”

“A big hairy beast? Sounds like Marco’s cousin,” Rachel said.

“Hilarious. Oh how I long for man fuzz.”

“It’s okay, Marco,” Rachel said. “Gorillas can be intimidating. Do we have something easier to start with? A cuddly koala, maybe?”

“That’s it,” Marco said. “Open the door. Let’s acquire the shit out of King Kong.” Cassie opened the door, then gave Marco an apple out of her bag.

“Just don’t make him angry. No one will see us from this angle, but we shouldn’t draw attention.”

There was a big rock outcropping shielding us from general view, but Big Jim the gorilla saw us right away. He sauntered over and examined Marco’s apple.

“You’ll have to touch him to acquire the DNA,” I said.

“What?” Marco said. “This is seriously messed up.” Big Jim the gorilla held out his hand, cupped.

“He wants you to give him the apple,” Cassie said.

“Nice gorilla. Loved your work in King Kong. Not the remake, of course. All original.” Marco tentatively touched the gorilla’s wrist while Big Jim focused on the apple. The monkey had fingers as big as my wrists, so I was happy Marco was doing this.

“This is so cool,” Tobias commentated. “You realize that gorilla could pull Marco apart like he was a paper doll. Look at those arms!”

Marco opened his eyes. “Tobias? Being terrified gets in the way of concentrating. So how about if you shut up about his arms?”

Suddenly a whirring sound.

“Oh no,” Cassie said. “As long as it’s not security, we’re probably fine.” Marco stepped back into the hallway and Cassie snapped the door closed. A man in a stained tan lab coat rolled in on a golf cart.

“Hey, you’re Cassie, right? The doc’s kid? How’s it going?”

“Fine,” Cassie said. She waved him off then let out a long sigh of relief. “Okay. We’re fine. Where to next?”

“What’s close?” I asked.

“Uh,… outer exhibits, so big animals that need space. Dolphins and the jaguar that way. Bats and snakes over there.”

Rachel started down the hall to our right. “Dolphins. I love dolphins.”

“Nuh uh. I didn’t touch the arm-ripper so you could go gallivanting with dolphins. We should go for the big exhibits. Get serious here.” Marco started down the hall to the left. And then I heard this voice echo down the bland utilitarian hall. “Hey! Hey, you kids! What are you doing back here?” I saw a guy in a brown uniform.

“Security!” Cassie yelped. “Oh, man, they’ll take us all to the office. They’ll call my mom and I do not want to explain this to her.”

“Ok, split up! He can’t catch us all.” Cassie pelted down one hall and Rachel and Tobias went after her. Marco was already twenty yards down the other hall, and I ran after him. The guard glanced after Tobias and the girls before turning towards us.

“Stop! You kids better stop!”

“Golf cart!” Marco said. He jumped behind the wheel of an abandoned golf cart and turned the key. He put his foot down on the pedal and slammed straight into the wall.

“What do you think this is, bumper cars? Hands on the wheel!”

“Hey, calm down, I got it. Ten and two is what they say, right?” He grabbed the wheel at twelve and steered us down the hall. We picked up enough speed to pull away from the guy, but he was still jogging after us.

“He is going to have a heart attack,” I said.

“Which way?”

“What?” I turned to see a T-stop. “Go right!” Marco went left, turning the wheel sharply. I gripped the frame of the golf cart.

“Remember when you said you wanted to live long enough to get a license? Please don’t get a driver’s license.” We took another turn, but this time I did fall out.

“God damn it Marco. Just keep going!” He took the cart down the left corridor, and I ran up the right. I thought the old guy would go after me - Marco was this dumb little kid, but I was this big teen. Most adults think high school kids are the definition of trouble. It kind of ticked me off. But I turned back to see he’d gone after Marco after all. I guess the cart was more important.

I slowed up. The hall was much longer and the lights were all spread out. It made me feel like I was underground. I was jogging now. I didn’t like being back here on my own, so I was looking for a way out. But there were no doors down this hall.

“Hey! Hey kid!” I looked up to see two more dudes in brown security outfits ahead. And these guys looked fit. I ran down a side path.

I came up to a dead end and knew I was trapped. There were two doors: P-201 and P-203. No help. The guards were going to get there soon. I could see them at the end of the corridor and approaching fast. So I pulled open P-203 and ducked inside.

There were trees all around. Trees and grass. Sunlight filtered down through the leaves and ahead the bushes gave way to open grass. I moved away from the door and scanned around for an exit. I could see people really high up lining a railing. It had to be at least a thirty foot wall. I realized in that moment that a thirty foot wall was pretty far, and whatever those people were looking at was probably not something I wanted to meet.

The guards weren’t coming in, and that only made me more anxious. I tried not to panic, and then I saw it. A steel ladder in the concrete, about fifty yards or so away. I breathed a sigh of relief.

And then I felt something warm brush my leg.

I turned, moving as cautiously as I could and then sucked in a sharp breath. I had backed up right into a tiger.

I looked this up after I didn’t die by being ripped to pieces. This was the Garden’s ten foot male Siberian tiger. He’s around seven hundred pounds. This thing was huge. And here I was nearly sitting on it.

The tiger looked bored. ‘Oh, what is this? A small human. Perhaps it is here to entertain me.’ I tried to keep calm. He didn’t look hungry. And I realized I had walked right past him. He’d probably been watching me the whole time. So maybe he wasn’t interested in attacking me at all. Of course, if he changed his mind I had no chance. I started to regret suggesting we get dangerous morphs.

And then I had an idea.

I reached out as carefully as I could. My hand was shaking, but I kept telling myself if he wanted me dead the tiger would’ve attacked already.

Then my phone buzzed in my pocket.

The tiger’s eyes turned sharply to my pocket and I pressed my hand to his flank. I concentrated as quickly as I could. His fur was long and thick.

“Nice tiger…” I said. I thought about him - the giant claws, those sharp teeth, the fact he could just sit on me and probably crush me - and thankfully the tiger became really quiet. Acquiring an animal’s DNA puts them in a bit of a trance. It normally lasts for like ten seconds after you lose physically contact too. I eyed the ladder and reached my free hand into my pocket to silence my phone. I hoped ten seconds would be enough.

I broke into a sprint, counting off the seconds. And then I saw a flash of motion from the far side of the enclosure.

“Shit!” I yelled. There was more than one tiger. I could hear screams from the spectators above and so I guess I was out of the cover of the bushes completely now. I leapt onto the ladder and climbed as quickly as I could. I heard claws raking the concrete. And then it roared.

I have never climbed a ladder faster in my life. Gold medal worthy performance.

“That’s him!” I let out a groan, hoisted myself over the railing and kept sprinting. Three more guards were on my tail. But hey, they weren’t a tiger. So things were looking up for me, relatively speaking.

I lost the guards through a big crowd. Once I felt sure I’d lost them, I stopped running and took out my phone. The message was from Marco, letting me know he’d gotten out fine and was meeting the others at the exit. Which, you know, was really comforting at the moment. Not.

Turns out the girls and Tobias weren’t chased at all. They’d gone on acquiring morphs and even stopped by the dolphin tank for fun. Marco was going on and on about how the guard chased him and how epic his golf cart driving was.

I rolled my eyes and led the way back to the car. I had to drop the kids off at their homes before getting back for dinner. My hand shook as I put the keys into the door.

“Seriously, I was this close to getting nabbed. I had to run out through the zebra exhibit.”

“Oh, no, zebras,” Rachel mocked from the front seat. “Sounds really death defying.”

“They could’ve trampled me,” Marco whined as he slid inside.

“Alright, alright pipe down.” I looked out at Tobias, who was still outside.

“I was just going to take the bus,” he said.

“Are you sure? I can easily drop you off.”

“No, no, I’ll just meet you all tonight.”

The kids all complained about their homework. Apparently there was a big math test the next day. I remembered I had an essay due at the end of the week. Mostly I zonked out as I drove. I felt really drained.

I didn’t eat much at dinner. My family still sits down every night for dinner together. I guess that’s kind of old fashioned now, because most people are so busy. But my mom insists, and then it becomes this thing where she asks about our day and our lives.

“Where have you been all day?” she asked Jake. No she asked the Yeerk. Slimy bastard. He shrugged.

“Hanging out. You know, with Marco.” I knew that was a lie; I wondered where the Yeerk had really been.

“I don’t know why you bother to ask,” my dad said. “They always say the same thing. ‘We hung out.’”

“What’d you do at work, Dad?” the Yeerk asked.

“Hung out.” He winked at the Yeerk and everyone laughed. Mine may have been a little half-hearted but no one said anything.

“Are you doing stuff tonight?” I asked the Yeerk. It was a dumb thing to ask.

“Why?” I shrugged.

“We could shoot hoops. I’ve got to help you figure out your three-pointer.”

“Nah, not tonight. I have things to do.”

“‘Hanging out’, no doubt,” my mom said with a smile. “Eat the broccoli Jake, it’s good for you.” He popped the smallest piece of broccoli from his plate in his mouth with a smile. It was just the way Jake would’ve done it. No one knew he’d be going to the Yeerk pool tonight. We’d been watching him, and we knew the Yeerk’s schedule by now.

I excused myself and then went upstairs to my room. I could see out to the front yard from my window and waited until I saw Jake take off on his bike. Then I sent out a text to everyone.

 **The falcon has left the nest** , I wrote. I thought Marco would get a kick out of that. Rachel and Cassie were on their way. I knew we’d just meet Tobias there. Marco didn’t answer, but I assumed he was just already on his way. Except he wasn’t there.

“Maybe he got cold feet,” Rachel said with a shrug. “Doesn’t matter. We can do this fine without him.” I felt pretty bad though. We hadn’t even started and already the plan was messed up.

The plan was to sneak in through the science lab window - Marco said it was never locked. Then we just had to go down to the pool. We talked about different animals we could go as, but we didn’t know what we would find down there. So we decided to try and pretend to be Controllers. If they really were as ubiquitous as they seemed, then I was betting they didn’t know each other by face.

I was hoping once we got down there we could get out quick. Tobias offered to go as a hawk to keep an eye on things, which actually is really helpful. If nothing else, I’ve learned the benefits of a lookout. It sounded like a good plan, to keep ourselves organized. I was hoping Jake would be easy to spot. If we needed to, we had our morphs to get us out of a sticky situation.

Okay, it was a really crappy plan, if you can even call it a plan. But Rachel’s plan involved becoming an elephant and charging down, probably trumpeting like the company in The Jungle Book.

“Where’s Tobias?” I asked. Rachel pointed up. There was a hawk sitting on a streetlight.

“What’s he doing? I told him we’d find a place for him to morph once we got in.” Rachel shrugged.

“He said it was way faster than taking the bus.” I forced him to come down and demorph. Fortunately he had figured out clothes at this point. We only ever figured out skin-tight stuff, though, so he looked like a bicycle enthusiast. But that was less conspicuous than a bird.

We couldn’t wait any longer for Marco, so we crawled into the building. I nearly didn’t fit and I fell to the lab floor once I forced myself through. Now I had a sore shoulder on top of everything else.

I carefully stuck my head out the door. Cassie pointed out the janitor closet in question. Nobody was in the hall, so I opened the door.

Then I did hear a voice. Two, actually. I ducked back into the room and gestured for everyone to be quiet. I think we all recognized the voice at the same moment, though, because we all pushed up to the crack in the door.

“Hey! You can’t do this! I have rights. You have to read them to me, but I know them anyway!” Marco was being pushed forward by a cop. He had his hands behind his back and I had a sinking feeling he was handcuffed.

“That’s the guy he was arguing with,” Tobias whispered.

“What?”

“At the Sharing. He was arguing with that guy when you were spying on the Controllers.”

“Oh God,…” I actually asked Marco about this later. That cop had been patrolling his neighborhood, asking about kids in the construction site. They were pretty serious about finding us, I guess. So the cop walked up to Marco as he was taking out the trash, recognized him from the Sharing, and the best Marco could figure it was one coincidence too many. But things were now infinitely worse for our plan. I saw Marco’s eyes focus on the janitor’s closet ahead. I pushed everyone back into the room as they passed. I looked at everyone’s faces. Marco was still screaming outside. They had looked nervous before but now they looked terrified.

“Okay. Okay, the plan is still the plan. We just… have to get Marco out first.”

“First?” Rachel asked.

“You do realize what’s going to happen if they get a Yeerk in his head, don’t you?” And now Rachel looked really afraid.

“So we’re not going to let that happen. Just stay calm, and go with the plan. We’re Controllers, and we’re just… Hungry.” I was frustrated that I couldn’t come up with anything better, but we had no time. I opened the door and walked out into the empty hall. The others followed. We squeezed into the closet and Cassie started messing with the faucet. All at once the door swung open, and I knew we were crossing a pretty big threshold.

I could hear a sloshing noise, like waves. But it was drowned out by the horrified screams and despairing cries. I could hear Marco still yelling, too, but he was out of sight down the staircase. I wondered how deep we’d have to descend.

“Well, it’s either the Yeerk pool, or it’s hell,” I said.

“Could be both,” Rachel shot back. Seemed likely to me at the time. So I stepped through.

The stairs were really steep and there was no railing. The door closed behind us and then we were just going down and down and down.

“How far do you think it goes?” Cassie asked.

“I could fly down and check,” Tobias said. I was kind of concerned about how much time he was spending as a hawk. But there was no one in sight above or below us, so I nodded.

“Yeah, okay, now’s as good a time as ever. Just be careful, and don’t let anyone see you. I doubt there are many hawks down here.” Tobias just started morphing. He was getting faster at it too, although it still looked like a freak show act. He flew over our heads and out of sight below.

<Okay, I found the end,> he said after a long pause. He sounded shaky. <And, well… This place is really big.> I wanted to ask him more details, but there was no way. His “voice” already sounded kind of distant, and I couldn’t thought speak to him. But it didn’t take too long until he kept talking. He’d pause for a while, and then start up again.

<Okay, I beat Marco and the cop down here. Found a good perch. I’m looking for Jake now… I just really can’t believe this. It’s… It’s REALLY BIG. This thing isn’t just under the school. They could fit a football field down here, or, like, five. How big are football fields even? … Oh my God, I found Jake. He’s… okay he’s in a cage, but he’s also yelling at - where did Jake even learn those words? I don’t even know what that means.>

At this point I kind of didn’t want to hear Tobias anymore. I was pretty scared of what I was going to see, but I still wasn’t ready. The rock walls of the staircase widened and then we were looking into the biggest cavern I’ve ever seen. Tobias was right. They could fit a bunch of football fields here. Stadiums even. They had carved out the cavern like a giant dome. I could see a hole at the top, and I think I saw some stars. There were stairways like ours all around the edge, coming from every direction. I realized that this wasn’t the only entrance.

“This…” Cassie trailed off. I was really overwhelmed. We were really overwhelmed. We kept saying ‘how can we take on this army of Yeerks’, but I hadn’t really been thinking _an army_. But here they had this giant underground city, and the reality set in. We really were fighting an army, thousands and thousands of aliens. Taxxons, Hork-Bajir, and some other weird creatures were everywhere. And lots and lots and lots of humans. I really didn’t like our odds at all.

<Guys, I see Marco.> I jerked out of my reverie and looked up. I didn’t know where Tobias was. <He looks pretty scared. I mean, of course he’s scared. It’ll take them some time to get through the crowd, but I’m pretty sure he’s taking him right to the pool.>

I could see it now. The pool was at the very center of the cavern. The water looked like melted lead, and it was surrounded by cages. Tobias said Jake was in one of them.

I could see, too, how the whole thing worked. A line of Hork-Bajir Controllers stood by as people walked up one steel pier. They’d bend down and dip their heads towards the surface. The Yeerk would drop out and then the host would start screaming. The Hork-Bajir lead them to a cage and threw them in. Humans were about ten to a cage, Hork-Bajir maybe six or seven. And that was where all the screams were coming from. Adults, kids, men and women were in there. They were screaming for help, or yelling at the guards. Some were just sitting silently. But then they’d be pulled out again and forced to go up the second pier.

The guards would hold them down until the Yeerk could crawl back in again. Then there was no screaming. They would stand up calmly, straighten their clothes, and walk away. Like it was nothing. Like they couldn’t hear or see what was happening around them.

“We should probably move,” I heard Rachel say. I nodded and started walking down again, at a quicker pace. We didn’t have time to think about what was going on. We had to get Marco out before he got to that pier. I stepped off the last step then made a beeline for some storage sheds nearby. I was hoping to find a place to morph in private.

I stopped up short around the one corner. I’d run right into a Hork-Bajir and a human. He was carrying one of those weird pistols. He looked up at me then narrowed his eyes.

“What are you doing back here? State your name and rank.”

“Uh…” My mind was blank. And then I noticed something had snuck up behind them. It looked like a giant gray mass, but I saw the long blond hair rising up, like a wig over an ever-widening face.

It would have been comical in any other circumstance, but the guy slowly turned, then craned his neck back.

<Alright ladies and gentlemen. Let’s do this.>


	5. Chapter 5

Rachel didn’t even finish turning into an elephant. Once her feet were formed she was charging. Her tusks burst out just as she got to the Hork-Bajir Controller.

<Ahhhh!> she yelled, then shook her head. The Controller fell off her tusk and hit the wall. I don’t know what happened to the other guy; I was too busy thinking about that tiger.

<Okay, Marco is a really annoying shit, but he is seriously almost on that pier and we should probably try to save him _right now_. >

<Thank you, Tobias, for the update,> Rachel said. <Am I facing the pool? This shed’s in my way.>

<Yes you are facing the pool.>

<Cool.> The earth shook as I fell forward onto tiger paws. I turned to see what remained of the shed and the back of a charging elephant.

And I wasn’t scared one bit. The tiger’s body was just filled with power. I could feel the claws ready to strike. My legs were strong; the tiger looked up at the nearby building and knew it could get on that roof. I was ready for anything.

And the guards clearly were not ready for me. I bounded in Rachel’s wake. Some Hork-Bajir and humans would stream in behind her, but I struck them down. I saw another, smaller beast moving quickly ahead. I realized it must’ve been Cassie. She was a dog or something. Like a feral dog. A really nasty dog that was maiming humans sneaking up behind Rachel.

<Rachel, bear left! Bear left!>

<A bear?>

<No, go a little more to your left! You’re going to run right into the pool if you don’t!>

<Oh. Bear left, got it.>

I got to the poolside after Rachel had swept past. There was no one on the infestation pier now - everyone had run from the rampaging elephant. I could sympathize.

<Tobias! Where’s Marco?>

<He ducked out. Which was lucky, because Rachel might have trampled him. I can see him morphing now, but I don’t know what - oh. Oh that works.>

<What? What works?> I leapt at a Hork-Bajir guard by one of the cages. Some of the people inside were cheering me on. Most of them were trying to get out the other side of their cages. I understood. Tigers are very scary.

<Nothing. Just handcuffs aren’t designed for gorillas, apparently.>

<Okay,> Marco said. I was relieved to hear Marco’s voice. Well, ‘hear’. <I would like to take this moment to say FUCK THE POLICE.>

Marco soon made quick work of the the cage doors. He just grabbed and pulled. It looked really easy. The people inside stayed glued in place until Marco gave a little bow. Then they were flooding out.

I saw Jake in one of those cages. He was whispering to some other people, and I could see them nodding. He was the last out of his cage; he was pushing this other kid along in front of him and yelling.

It was mayhem. Humans were streaming out, running and screaming. Quickly it was impossible to tell them apart from the Controllers. Everyone was trying to get away from the elephant and the tiger. But the Controllers were getting organized too. And they had weapons. I remembered seeing those weapons at work on the homeless man.

<Okay, bail! Everyone get out of here! Head for the stairs!> Rachel was already pretty far out. I saw a flash of movement and realized Tobias was striking at the guards blocking the fleeing hosts’ path. I could see Marco’s dark head in the crowd, and I thought I saw Jake near him. I thought it was really going to work for a minute.

Then I saw the Andalite body step out from a group of Hork-Bajir. Visser Three changed the scenario considerably. He basically always does.

He looked right at me with the vertical slits he had for eyes. I let out a roar. I was happy to see the Hork-Bajir around the Visser tremble. The Visser looked amused at most.

<My Taxxon fools want to know if they can eat these wild animals. But of course you are not animals are you?> His eyes curled up, as if he were smiling. I suddenly didn’t feel as confident about our situation. <So. Not all of you burned in the ship. No matter. I can handle a few Andalite warriors.>

I didn’t understand at first. Then I realized - of course. He knew we were morphed, but he thought only Andalites could morph. I felt like giving a crow of victory. He didn’t know who we were. But then I saw his body start to change. I turned and raced to catch up with the others.

<I acquired this body on the fourth moon of the second planet of a dying star,> the Visser continued, while I ran. I could see the others ahead. I turned back once and saw the Visser rise up on eight massive legs. Then I saw eight massive heads appear. I decided not to look back again.

<Tobias! Can you see everyone! How close are they?>

<I can see. I don’t know if they’ll make it. That thing the Visser is morphing…>

<What’s he morphing?> I heard Cassie ask.

<You really do not want to know,> Tobias said.

<I’m happy you’ve chosen to run. It makes a more challenging target, and I was worried I’d have no fun now that our campaign on this planet is assured.> There was a sharp sound from behind me, like a raspy cough.

<Dodge Tom dodge!> I jumped to my right. A ball of flame erupted where I had been.

<Ahhhhhh!> I yelled. The tiger was afraid of the fire too, and I felt the last of the tiger’s confidence melt away. But now the Visser was aiming higher.

He was attacking the front of the crowd running towards the stairs. I saw a human fall screaming as the flame erupted over her back. Rachel screamed as fire sizzled her ear, but she kept plowing a path for the stairs. The air was full of fire and Taxxons swarmed in over anyone unlucky enough to fall. I sliced one open in passing, but that only caused the Taxxons to swarm over and devour their own.

I redoubled my efforts to get to the stairs. I saw Rachel’s form shrinking. She was nearly to the bottom of the stairs.

<Rachel’s there! They’re getting up the stairs!> Tobias yelled out.

<Where’s Marco? And Cassie?>

<I’m here!> Cassie said. <I’m taking out a few of these Taxxons before they get any of the people. I don’t think the Visser can see me…And I don’t think I want to know what he’s doing right now!>

<Here!> I heard from Marco. He sounded shaky. <Almost to the stairs.> And we made a run for it. But fire was taking people down as they climbed. They were falling off the sides and then they were lost in a writhing mass of Taxxons. By the time I started climbing, there were no more Hork-Bajir running, and not that many humans.

<Everyone, keep going! Do not look back, do not stop, keep moving!> I yelled at everyone. I saw one of the humans look around, confused, and realized I had yelled that to _literally_ everyone.

<Yes, don’t look back.> The Visser sounded so pleased. I saw him start to move up the steps behind me on one of his eight massive legs. I saw fire ahead and it hit the browned haired kid running just behind Marco.

<Jake!> I yelled. I saw the gorilla’s head whip around.

And then I did something really really stupid. I changed direction and leapt straight at the Visser.

The tiger knew what it was about. I had my claws out and was doing some damage, but before I knew it I had my teeth sunk into the back of one of the Visser’ s massive heads. The other heads tried to burn me with fire, but I dodged away. The fire hit the Visser’s own neck. He bellowed in pain and I roared with hatred.

<Not Jake! Not Jake!> I heard, from what seemed like really far away. It was Marco. <I don’t know where Jake went; just keep running Tom!>

And then I ran up those stairs and away from that nightmarish scene.


	6. Chapter 6

The Visser had made the mistake of morphing something too large to pursue us. He’d blocked the path, too, so there was no one chasing. Not that we slowed down. He was yelling at us as we ran, though.

It was just the four of us running up though. Rachel was ahead - I could see her blond hair now. Marco was loping along. I could see Cassie way ahead. When we got back up to the top, and no one else was there, we demorphed. And then I shoved Marco against the nearest wall.

“What do you mean, you don’t know where Jake was?”

“He ducked out, I swear! I was trying to keep an eye on him, but he started leading these other people away. I lost them in the crowd.” He looked dead exhausted.

“He couldn’t have done anything,” Cassie said. “Jake didn’t know it was us. Maybe he got out another way?”

I doubted it. They were rounding up fleeing humans pretty fast down there, once they’d gotten organized.

But she was also right that this wasn’t Marco’s fault. I could see that Marco was probably more angry with himself than I was.

“But hey, we made it out alive?” Rachel didn’t sound like she much believed that was enough. And it really wasn’t. We really lost a lot there. Sure, we made it out alive, but now the Visser knew we were here. He thought we were Andalites, sure, but we’d lost the element of surprise.

“Where’s Tobias?” I asked. Rachel’s face drained of color. She turned back towards the stairs. I latched onto her arm.

“Let go of me!”

“Rachel, if he’s still down there, we _can’t_ go back.”

“You’re going to abandon him?!”

“Rachel, they don’t know he’s there,” Marco chimed in. “He can hide out. Probably find a place to demorph and wait it out. But if we go back down, they might wonder why.” She pushed me away but seemed to accept that. So we went home like that. We were all worried about Tobias, and I was busy wondering if Jake was not just free, but unharmed.

I was shaking in my bed, face pressed into my pillow when I heard him come up the stairs. I peered out. Jake seemed calm. He didn’t look hurt. I figured if he looked that calm, they must’ve caught him again. Our first mission had been an abject failure.

I got a text from Rachel in the night, but I didn’t see it until the morning. She just said, **the hawk paid me a visit. all accounted for.** That was it. I didn’t find out until later that it’d taken more than two hours for things to calm down, and Tobias got stuck in the hawk morph. That’s what the Andalite had warned us about. Stay two hours and you stay for life.

Wow, when I started this I hadn’t meant for it to sound so depressing. I mean, this situation is really depressing. And I’m exhausted after writing all of this. But we’ve done a bit more by now, and if it’s any consolation, not everything we’ve done has been an abject failure. No stunning victories, but we’re still fighting. And we’re going to keep fighting.

You can be sure of that.

Until I can write again,

Tom


End file.
